Pastoral Letter

August 8, 1985

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR — El Salvador's Catholic bishops will issue a pastoral letter calling for an immediate resumption of peace talks between the U.S.-backed government and leftist guerrillas. Arturo Rivera y Damas, the archbishop of San Salvador: ''The whole church wants to urge a dialogue before it is too late.'' Government and rebel negotiators met twice last year but not since. ''I have always been open to sincere dialogue in whatever moment in which the armed men would be ready to sincerely talk,'' President Jose Napoleon Duarte said. Rebel leaders did not immediately comment.